Ten minutes. We agreed he’d only stay in the star gate for ten minutes. Just long enough for him to get a quick look around to try and establish the time and place the stargate lead to and then straight back.
Do not be seen, do not be heard. Get in, get out. Those were the rules.
I was tasked with waiting here, with the horses. We agreed Cal would be back in ten minutes. If he’s not, I wait no longer than one additional hour before alerting Professor Gamby to our shenanigans and begin the task of figuring out how to rescue Cal.
I watched the symbols of the stargate etched into the red bedrock begin to fade, when the swirling electrical sound of the stargate opening started back up. It had only been about two minutes, I figured Cal had ran into trouble early and had to jump back through already.
At least I hoped it would be Cal.
As he stepped back through, I was relieved to recognize the black snake tattoo wrapping around his forearm immediately but as my eyes made their way up to his face, my brain had a hard time reconciling the image in front of me because this man looked like he could be Cal’s dad, definitely closer to 50 and not the 28 year old man that just walked through that Stargate a minute earlier.
‘Ellis?’ he asked, his voice definitely that same, gentle tenor I’m familiar with. I’d know that voice anywhere.
I nodded slowly, unable to take my unblinking gaze from his face, which was sporting a whole new set of soft wrinkles around his eyes and mouth that were not there just moments ago.
Rushing toward me, he caught me in an embrace, wrapping his arms around my stiff, still uncertain body. ‘Oh my god, Ellis, I can’t believe you’re actually here. How did you know I was coming back? How long have you been here?’
Confused by his question, I shook my head pulled his arms from around me and held his hands between us, ‘What do you mean, Cal? You just went through like,’ I looked at my watch to read the seconds as the timer countinued counting, ‘2 minutes and 12 seconds ago.’
The color drained from Cal’s now-mature face.
‘Impossible.’ Now it was Cal’s turn to stare blankly at me.
‘Look,’ I say, as I turn my wrist for him to see the timer, still clicking.
He grabbed my wrist and held it in one hand then slowly dropped it and turned his eyes back to mine, a despair there I had never seen before. ‘Ellis,’ he gulped. ‘I was in there for 22 years.’
The man stepped forward warily, unsure if he should touch her body with his hands or not. He opted to just leave his hands on the stone table the princess was lying upon, looking to be peacefully sleeping. Leaning forward, he slowly lowered his head towards hers with a slight hesitation before her placed his lips gently on hers.
The eyes of the princess flew open so suddenly, it made the man jump back in surprise. The princess slowly sat up her eyes now wide in confusion as she looked around, but recognition forming on her face as her eyes fell on the man.
“David?” was all she said.
Overjoyed that the kiss had actually worked and had awoken the princess who had been in the lifeless sleep for nearly 3 months, David took a step toward her, ready to embrace his beautiful bride-to-be. Just as he was about to put his arms around her, a ghastly shade of grey started to quickly take over the shade of her skin, which also began to shrink and wither as the look of death rapidly took hold of her body.
David gasped and jumped back as a low and raspy moan started coming from the Princess. Slowly, she turned toward David who now looked at her in horror and as her now hollowed and sunken eyes turned back on him, she simply groaned, “What have you done to me?”
I was five years old the first time I saw him. It was the middle of the night and I had woken up suddenly from a bad dream and you know when you can just feel someone in the room with you? It was like that, it felt like someone was looking at me.
My eyes were groggy from sleep but I managed to peel them open to look around my room. I always left my bedroom door open with the hall light on because I frequently got scared at night or had to get up to use the bathroom and I didn’t want any surprises.
As I looked around, from the foot of my bed, past it to the window, to my closet I didn’t see anything. Then my eyes fell to the open door, and there he was. A somewhat tall, bald man wearing a trench coat on, holding an umbrella that was partially obscuring his face, just standing in my doorway, staring at me. The most frightening part was what little of his face I could see. It was nearly skeletal with thin, translucent skin, giant black eyes that showed no whites in them, no nose, and a sort of scarf pulled up around the bottom part of his face.
After staring at me without a sound for what seemed like hours but was probably only several minutes, the figure turned and walked away. After that, I began seeing him all the time, at least once a week. Mostly he would show up at night like that first time but the older I got, the more I would see him at other times and even outside of my house. I would see him watching me from across the playground at school, down the aisles of the grocery store when I would go with my mom, and across the street as I waited for the bus. He was always holding an umbrella. I never told anyone because I didn’t want them to think I was crazy.
Recently, now at almost 30 years old, I see him every day and every day he seems to be a little closer to me. He’s not just down the aisles or across the street, he is directly behind me, or next to me sitting on the couch, always staring at me.
While visiting my mom yesterday, I finally decided to ask her about it. I figure maybe there was some traumatic event that happened when I was little and my brain maybe manifested this creepy guy to keep me from remembering whatever it was that happened.
“Hey mom, I need to ask you something but please try to not freak out,” I tell her, knowing she does have a tendency to be dramatic.
“Johnny, what is it?” She asks, concern showing in the crease of her forehead.
“So, this is going to sound super weird but ever since I was little, I have seen this creepy looking bald person in a long trench coat following me around and I didnt know if maybe there was something that happened when I was around 5 or so since that is when is started.” I tell her.
Mom is frozen, staring at me as her face pales and what she whispers sends chills down my spine, “is he holding an umbrella?” Was all she asks.
My spoon clatters to the floor, ‘How do you know that?’
My mom, with a single tear running down her cheek says, ‘your dad saw him too.’
At that point, she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and asks, ‘how close is he?’
I cannot give an answer. My heart is pounding as I try to ignore the dark figure in my peripheral that is mere inches from my face.
The first thing I notice upon walking up to my house, yes MY house, not his, is that my roses are gone. How is it possible my roses are gone? I asked very little of him while I was away, but maintaining the garden, especially my porch roses, was top priotity. And he knew that. I even wrote it into the lease he signed. “Alex!” I yell as I unlock the front door and begin storming through every room, in search of the flower murderer. He’s not here. Realizing it’s Tuesday morning, it dawns on me that he must be at work at the clinic. Ok, no problem, I guess I will just go ahead and unpack my stuff and wait for him to get home this evening. I cant believe after only two months away, not only is my relationshop dead, so are my roses.
Sometimes we stumble into things that are bigger than us, things not meant for us. I only wanted to find my friend. I only wanted to reunite her with her two kids so they could grow up with their mom to cheer and support them their whole lives. I only wanted my friend back, to see her infectious smile once more. Instead, I’m now in the hands of her killer, the man responsible for making her disappear, the one who took her away, leaving no way for her to find her way back. Im in the hands i know all too well but now, not at all -the hands of my husband.
